Lung - Velvet Flare - Johnny Payne - Value Void

Lung - Butcher.

Background - 'All the King’s Horses' marks a shift from Lung’s first album, Bottom of the Barrel. The content was largely influenced by the band’s experiences from their national tours. “We’re excited that it [the new album] is going to be out of our heads and into the world.” Wakefield explains, “The album reflects what we (Daisy, Rachelle, and me) have experienced as a band touring around this confusing and awesome country. It is a snapshot of what we have seen, lived-through, and what’s been shared with us. The record aims to take you on a journey of personal and shared struggles and goes to some pretty vulnerable places. I hope that people listening to the record get some sort of cathartic release by the end of it.”

Sonically the album has a dark, biting edge. Kate Wakefield (vocals, cello) and Daisy Caplan (drums) have developed a powerful, sinister sound created from total immersion into music culture and life on the road. Thematically, the record has a wide range, with songs directly confronting issues of consent such as “Brock” and “All the King’s Horses” in addition to more fantastical narratives of reality as in “Spiders” and a few pointed anti-love songs.  The art for Lung directly reflects these intense experiences. Their artist, Rachelle Caplan, interprets the music visually in real-time as songs are being written and consistently tours with the band.

Lung, which formed in April of 2016 and includes Daisy Caplan on drums, has played over 250 shows to date. Known for their live shows, they are looking forward to returning to the West Coast, hitting spots old and new. “I’m excited to play places we’ve never been before, to see every part of this country,” says Daisy. The two are not new to the road. Both have performed in multiple touring projects. Kate has been writing and performing solo since 2014. Daisy was a core member of the prolific rock band, Foxy Shazam and feminist punk band, Babe Rage.

When asked about what we can expect for the next record, Wakefield hinted at heavier thematic material. “This next record is going to bring something different. A lot has happened in the world since our first release (Bottom of the Barrel, Spring 2017) and this album reflects that intensity.” Tracks from All the King’s Horses show a maturation in the band’s songwriting and an evolution in content. There is a more demanding and provocative edge to the record that illustrates undeniable feelings of paranoia and unease with the onset of the Trump presidency. “We were in Texas during the election. Nobody could believe it. We were playing small towns and big cities alike. The feeling was intense; a new ‘uncomfortable normal’ began to take over,” said Wakefield on the experience. WEBSITE.

Taken from the duos brand new 'All The Kings Horses' album released this week we have 'Butcher'. Lung are a potent musical pairing, the instrumental choice adding natural individuality, and the vocals delivering plenty of attitude and emotion, this is passionate and feisty.


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Velvet Flare - My Femme Fatale.

Background - Following the release of their first album Worlds Apart in 2017, Velvet Flare announce the release of their second album Despair and Desire, which includes the latest single My Femme Fatale.

My Femme Fatale is inspired by classic 1940s/50s Film Noir. A seductive woman persuades her new lover to kill her husband for financial gain, but she ultimately betrays that lover. This dark theme is punctuated by humour with lyrics such as: “Got you what you wanted - Got his money and a room with a view - I lost my moral compass - When you asked if I could ‘just shoot him too’ - Shoot him too? Well, what else could I do?”

Despair and Desire includes the previously released single Ms Fox, which was reviewed by Beehive Candy: “.... ‘Ms Fox’ is another very impressive song. Mixing pop and indie rock vibes, the production is distinct and the gentle melody is full of hooks, in what is a top quality piece”. Ms Fox is the personification of Fox Glacier, NZ and the song is a lament for global warming.

Despair and Desire is primarily a collection of songs about relationships in various states of disintegration or buoyant aspiration. The album was recorded and engineered by Slade Gibson at Slade Gibson Audio, The Gap, Brisbane.

The release of their first album Worlds Apart in 2017 included the singles 6th of June, Animal (Arun Kendall in Backseatmafia: “Straight out of Brisbane and seemingly via the tenements of London comes Velvet Flare with Animal, a visceral, angry stab of glam rock that has all the hallmarks of an Antipodean Suede. Singer Paul English has a soaring voice, complete with eviscerating lyrics, that moves effortlessly into a falsetto…… a refreshing blast of unadorned indie guitar music with all the necessary posturing and sneer any good rock song should have”.) and Ice Age (which was No. 22 in Tomatrax Top 100 Songs of 2017). These singles and the album track The Brightest Light have all had airplay in Australia, England and Europe, and the USA. FACEBOOK.

Our third musical share for Velvet Flare comes in the form of their latest single 'My Femme Fatale'. The duel vocals really work well on this song, at times almost duelling rather than harmonising, doing so above a vibrant rocking backdrop.

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Johnny Payne - Never Stop Learning To Love.

Background - I began writing Never Stop Learning To Love on an escalator in a mall in Spain. The mall had about ten floors and by the time I got to the top I had a verse and a chorus. All that was at the top was a restaurant so I went back down.

The song is a reminder to myself to always practice tolerance and acceptance amidst chaos, the way children do. It’s about as psychedelic as I get in my writing. Not the Jimi Hendrix, Sgt Pepper version of Psychedelia, but the Brian Wilson, Disney version.

I always subscribed more to that: The idea that psychedelia isn’t entirely about drugs, but rather about a return to childlike innocence through purity of mind and a reverence for the natural world. For this reason, we felt it appropriate to shoot the video on the same beach where I spent so much time as a kid, just running around with a dog. It seemed to say everything about the song.

I recorded my upcoming solo EP with Tennis at their home studio in Denver and recruited Beach House drummer James Barone for the studio sessions. TWITTER.

Our second song from Johnny Payne is the gorgeous 'Never Stop Learning To Love'. Understated psychedelic vibes pour out, with some timeless sixties charm and fabulous hooks, this is instant replay material, and some.


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Value Void - Teen For Him.

Background - London trio Value Void share the third single, "Teen For Him", from their debut album Sentimental, due out on 26 October via Tough Love, released on limited edition green vinyl, CD and download. Last week the band played their first ever BBC6 Music session for Tom Ravenscroft. They will play an album launch show at The Stag's Head in London on 1 November.

Marta Zabala from the band explains more about the "'Teen for Him' was written in Buenos Aires ages ago, probably 2015 whilst Paz and I were working as assistants in a Social Gaming Company. It's a childish song about those moments when someone is having a personal crisis and are overcome by some weird infatuation, where the object of their desire has nothing to do with them. Like filling a gap."

This follows the singles "Babeland" and "Back In The Day." The album is instantly affecting, with an ease and clarity that suits the elegance of the lyrics: coded love songs and cool reflections on life which are all the more vulnerable and touching sung in Paz Maddio's lilting, ultrachromatic voice - a ceramic-sharp diagonal transatlantic on a pure open tone, with subtle waves of vibrato at its top end. It's a particular heart breaker on tracks such as “Babeland” and “Dead Ladies Lament”. BANDCAMP.

Having already featured the first two singles from Value Void 'Teen For Him' makes it three and does so with class. The bands individual and delectable sound is all apparent, the vocals slipping into pure London accent at times is charming, the album 'Sentimental' is now a must hear asap!

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Grace Inspace - The Brother Brothers - Value Void

Grace Inspace - Uncertain, CA.

Background - English-American musician Grace Inspace has announced new single Uncertain, CA, which follows recent releases Watersource and Tame Teens, and is out now through AWAL.

Continuing her unique “Protest Pop” sound, Uncertain, CA is as fictional as it is true to life and addresses the uncertainty of living in America. Produced by David Peters and featuring Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Grace takes things down a notch on Uncertain, CA, letting her vocals do the talking with a relaxed melody mixed with gentle steel drums. Grace says;

“Uncertain, CA - it’s a make-believe town, a microcosm of the state. I’m wandering through the town, the classic western stranger, the outsider, witness to this place’s constituencies and landscapes and seeing it is a land of topographical and cultural extremes - politically divided, deserted, overcrowded, majestically beautiful, scary, Paleolithic, ultra-modern. In California we are comfortable with the apocalypse and I think it’s because we know to call it by its other name, Rebirth, as well. Ultimately, like the fictitious town and very real state its named for, this apocalyptic song is optimistic.”

A lyricist and singer but also a drummer at heart, Grace plays drums and sings in a California trio Apocalyptic Kitchen. Many of Grace’s current songs began life as beats that she would play on her drum kit while singing melody lines dreamt up “on long window gazes, hours of window gazes, riding shotgun up and down the interstates in a big, lifted Dodge truck loaded with cannabis, survival equipment and guitars”. Her broad sound fuses electronic, country, hard rock and pop to create something that is musically unique and unequivocally memorable, all the while expressing matters close to her heart.

Grace has been working on two forthcoming EPs, produced in part by John King of the Dust Brothers and featuring Steve Perkins of Jane’s Addiction as well as Nick McCabe of The Verve, and will be announcing further music soon. FACEBOOK. 

The vocals are melodic, purposeful and hold a simmering level of emotion on 'Uncertain, CA' a gently paced pop song accompanied by a thoughtful musical backdrop, the steel drums giving the piece an additional layer of attractive hooks.

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The Brother Brothers - Frankie.

Background - Brooklyn-based Americana darlings The Brother Brothers have announced their debut album Some People I Know to be released October 19 on Compass Records. The Brother Brothers will embark upon a full U.S. tour this fall, including an extensive support run with I'm With Her and an album release show in Brooklyn on October 19 at Union Pool. Dates are listed below.

Identical twins David and Adam Moss honor a contemporary dissonance with the nostalgic tenderness of another time. Their stunning songcraft blends masterfully gentle guitar, cello and five-string fiddle with the sublime sort of two-part harmonies only brothers can carry. With palpably fraternal stage presence and wonderfully familiar heart, The Brother Brothers have earned repute among today's rising artists, having recently opened for Big Thief, Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves and more.

More about the song: "Frankie" delves into David's longtime neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn, the members of its community and the tumultuous development it's endured. His melodic testimony sings like a microcosm of problematic economic shift, both in NYC and across the country. In David's words:

I've looked upon the Statue of Liberty, and cherished the idea that someone can come to these shores and have the freedom to make a life unspoiled by an oppressive government or strong handed oppressor. But in her shadow I've seen money take precedent over the things I find most valuable: community, conversation, art, expression. These are the things that make us American and vibrant, but they are not things that allow us to pay our rent or buy property when faced with people who place more value in economics and finance ... value hardly ever begets values."  WEBSITE.

From the opening chords on 'Frankie' I was engrossed. The music has everything a classic Americana song needs to make it special, the vocals and exquisite harmonies take the piece even further, this really is a fabulous and timeless piece.


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Value Void - Babeland.

Background - London trio Value Void announce their debut album Sentimental, due out on 26 October via Tough Love, released on limited edition green vinyl, CD and download. Value Void are an offbeat proposition. A startling bolt from nowhere, their debut album Sentimental  is a collection of luxuriantly deep, shag pile-warm, analogue proto-punk. Paz Maddio and Marta Zabala grew up with each other in Azul, a small town south of Buenos Aires, where the seeds of this project were sown. They collaborate in the same way that Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote songs, with Marta penning lyrics then taking them to Paz to spin them in to music.

The single "Babeland" was one of those songs. As Paz explains; "it was one of the songs we made while Marta was living in London and I was living in Azul, Argentina. So basically it was one of the first songs we made before we started playing". Upon deciding to flesh the songs out for a full length, they returned to TVT studios with Euan in April this year, tweaking the mix and laying down two new songs: “Mind,” a down tempo lullaby/lament in which the band track into the territory of early St. Vincent, Grouper or Julianna Barwick, supported by a raw dirge that blossoms in feedback, and “The Deluge,” which is also reflective but structured by a roaming curiosity and big chorus seeking road movie oblivion.

Marta first came to London on tour with the super-slanted art punks Los Cripis, where she met Luke Tristram (of Cop, Score and Owner) who released their record via his Unwork label. Paz followed to join them and scrape rent from the city's bars and cafes. 

By early 2017 the three of them were holed up in practice rooms, Luke adding Evens-esque basslines that laid concrete to their minimalist guitar-lead pop songs. Originally as WVS, they started playing shows with bands that had once orbited the tiny Power Lunches venue in Hackney and, since its death, were now to be found on bills at DIY Space, New River Studios and other dusty successors of its autonomous, cheap drink, creative-friendly spirit. 

In common with bands like Shopping, rudimentary surroundings and resources fed into nonetheless ambitious, hooky work. Songs such as “Teen For Him,” a self-effacing lark importing strains of Leslie Gore and the Velvets; the minimal, Guided by Voices-reminiscent chug of “Bariloche” and “Cupids Bow,” an up tempo, Breeders-esque standout, were lynch pins of a pummeling, inspired set. BANDCAMP.

'Babeland' is an uncomplicated and immediately likable song. Value Void's music is refreshing and engaging, it could be described in part as minimalist, I would suggest it's more a case of "less is more" as passion and emotion adds to the sound.

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Thyla - AK Patterson - Franny and Zooey - Value Void

Thyla - Blame.

Background - Edging ever closer towards the forefront of emerging British indie music, Brighton’s Thyla deliver another glistening reminder of their boundless potential in thunderous new single Blame. Marshalled by frontwoman Millie Duthie’s soaring vocals, Blame exemplifies a band at the very top of their game with this latest display of euphoria soaked in reverb, brimming with creativity and accompanied by a series of stratospheric riffs and their trademark anthemic chorus.

Spotlighted alongside Pale Waves, Nilüfer Yanya and Sorry in NME’s 100 Essential Acts for 2018, the indie juggernauts have already attracted a whirlwind of online support this year alongside sharing bills with acts including Sunflower Bean, INHEAVEN and Fickle Friends.

Named by Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1) as one of his Alternative Tips for 2018, the post-punk outfit will be headlining the BBC’s Biggest Weekend Fringe event later this month as well as appearances at The Great Escape where their tenacious live show is sure to earn plenty of plaudits.

Ahead of the track’s release, the band stated: “Blame is about the uncharacteristic choices people make when they’re trying to be like someone else, for the sake of someone else, at a cost to themselves. It’s a neurotic frenzy of guitars with self conscious lyrics about the state of paralysis jealously puts you in; blind anger with no real solution”. TWITTER.

It's our third feature for Thyla this time with 'Blame' another fine song from the band. Last time we described their music as "stylish dream pop/rock with a mixture of melodic vibes and some rock potency". With the latest track the potency is increased, this is one feisty rocker.

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AK Patterson - Lady Greyling.

Background - AK Patterson have just released ‘Lady Greyling’, the latest track to emerge from their forthcoming debut EP ‘Shadows’, produced by Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Marika Hackman) and due out on 6 July, 2018 through East City Rockers in partnership with Andrew’s own Square Leg Records. Having supported Alt J earlier this year, AK Patterson will perform at this year’s Great Escape, May 17-19, 2018. 

Across a hypnotic, 7 minute span, ‘Lady Greyling’ tracks the struggle of its vulnerable namesake to overcome insistent self doubt. Unfolding from hushed beginnings, the track is - as with recent debut single ‘Shadows’ - anchored by Alex Patterson’s startling, dynamic voice and the nuanced work of bandmates Alfie Weedon and Nat Reading. Speaking about the new track, Patterson says; “Lady Greyling is an imagined character, a fragile bird-like creature who is a vehicle for exploring the trope of being your own harshest critic. As the story unfolds, she conquers her demons by leaping into the unknown, and inhabits the defiant bird of prey she really is.”

AK Patterson has been dubbed a ‘woman possessed’, disappearing to a place of fierce enchantment each time she sings. The foundations of Patterson’s voice - which switches from a whisper to flashes of emotion - were laid growing up in a music-obsessed household in suburban Cambridge. The likes of Jeff Buckley and Bjork were played heavily, alongside a more unpredictable love for Portugal’s traditional Fado singers. A curiosity for the unknown was deepened by travels including a period spent by Patterson living with monks in Japan, where meditation studies were fitted in alongside work in rice paddy fields.

An accomplished guitar and fiddle player, she and her bandmates, Alfie Weedon and Nat Reading, build a rich musical world. Classically trained, Weedon provides backing vocals and versatile double bass playing, having previously spent time in Senegal living with the country’s traditional Griot musical storytellers and poets. Reading’s restless multi-instrumentalism meanwhile, has led him to play everything from Balearic pop to classical guitar with the National Youth Guitar Ensemble. FACEBOOK.

At seven minutes the new song 'Lady Greyling' slowly unfolds into a beautiful and passionate song where the vocals build with feeling and emotion, and the musical arrangement softly ebbs and flows on this gentle and yet epic journey.

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Franny and Zooey - My Love.

Background - Franny and Zooey are a sister duo from Melbourne. As new artists, they are in a formative state of exploration and self-discovery - finding their own voice both stylistically and as a means of expression. Their music is diverse in sound and focuses on using voice and piano to create interwoven harmonies and strong melodies. My Love is the first single from the duo.

My Love tells the story of a relationship that has over time fragmented and broken, now resembling something that is unknown to the couple. Life takes over and the simpler joys of a relationship, once treasured, are forgotten. My Love is the dialogue of a couple trying to communicate, to generate a discussion, but finding each has taken the other for granted, and what they once had is now lost. It’s about losing yourself and your partner, and finding, in the end, that you don’t recognise yourself or the relationship you have created together. The track was recorded by Daniel Morassutti at SAE Studios and produced by Jared Brentnall with additional sound engineering from Andrew Kerridge.

Music has been an integral part of Franny and Zooey’s lives from a young age, where they were exposed to both classical and popular music and studied piano, cello, violin and voice. The girls grew up composing music and writing songs, presenting them in the comfort of their lounge and at school concerts. After finishing school and starting university, Franny and Zooey found themselves with no time to devote to their music. After studying for a year they both decided to take break and join forces in order to pursue their musical ambitions! The name of the duo comes from the title of a book by JD Salinger, and were the nicknames given to them at school by their English teacher.

When Franny and Zooey put their dreams aside to study at university, they realised they lost an essential part of who they are. Their goal in life is to create music that gives people the joy and meaning it gives to both of them. FACEBOOK.

Sister duo Franny and Zooey are an absolute breath of fresh air, as is demonstrated by 'My Love' a gorgeous folk pop sort of tune. This is quality music with naturally melodic vocals and a refined musical backdrop, in fact I would go as far as suggesting First Aid Kit may just have some viable competition here.

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Value Void - Back In The Day.

Background - London-based trio Value Void are announcing the release of the lovesick mid-tempo gem "Back in the Day," in anticipation of their debut LP, expected later in the year on Tough Love. The trio is comprised of Paz Maddio (guitar, vocal), Marta Zabala (drums), and Luke Tristram (bass); three friends with longstanding bar experience and active roles in the London DIY scene, having also played in Los Cripis, Major Malfunction and COP.

"Back in the Day" is a song that looks back to an ambiguous object of fascination. It begins with an insistent riff that sounds as though it could be itching a memory, with the tense verse giving way to an understated yet instantly memorable chorus. Their signature sound is a marvel of songwriting economy, meshing a clear pop sensibility with precise DIY punk.

A narrator, who is conjured by Marta’s lyrics and conducted through Paz’s expressive vocal, puzzles then un-puzzles herself, as she reminisces about an old romantic partner. The premise is that they "are just this weird game", concluding uncertainly that, "without any rules I don't want to play".

Harnessing an explosive energy that befits a perfectly formed punk rock power trio, Value Void nonetheless do so with a minimum of sonic prosthetics, choosing to record live to tape with Euan Hinshelwood at TVT studios in Blackheath. They rely on a stripped-down amplification of their ideas and esoteric technique to create a compelling and visceral sound. Value Void will be touring with Frankie Cosmos in May. BANDCAMP.

Opening with a steady rhythm 'Back In The Day' mixes melodic vocals that have just a little punk feeling to them, alongside a chunky rock background with a hypnotic riff rounding the whole piece off.

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